"Hodi hodi!"
Translation:Knock knock!
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66
People used to do that where I worked. We worked in cubicles, so there were no doors and our backs were to the entrance. If someone came to your cubicle "door" and didn't want to scare you, some would say, "Knock knock".
1552
I got excited seeing this and was like, "AYE!!"
Glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed the connection
1418
Of course, many traditional huts did not have a door to knock on at all. So saying "hodi hodi" was a way of making a guest's presence known.
1229
Saying "knock" or "knock knock" is an integral part of the cultures of Africa I have experienced. It is a way of asking for permission to enter one's homestead or door without physically knocking on something. Other examples,
Ndau = dododo , reply is "gumai" literally meaning "arrive" Shona = gogogoi, reply is "svikai" literally meaning "arrive" Ndebele = qoki qoki, reply is "ngenani" literally meaning "enter"
I am hoping others might share something about the etymology, but it's not really clear to me that it's not onomatopoeic. Looking at animal "sounds" from a variety of languages, many are explained as just that - "the sound the animal makes". But they can be very different! Except for often being repeated. "Hav hav! Wolf wolf! Oink oink! Ghrutu ghrutu!" Etc.
As in orange - Swahili "o" is always open/rounded [ɔ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_rounded_vowel
1024
Which area is that?? "O" in "orange" is one short sound, if you want to reproduce it when pronouncing "code", you'll end up saying "cod" which is a fish so quite far from what your intention was.
1997
I think they mean the other way around where the "o" in orange sounds more like the "o" in code. In my American accent and other regions that underwent the caught-cot sound merger, this is more or less how we would pronounce orange. Of course the vowel isn't exactly the same just like in the words "oh" vs "or" since "oh" has more of a diphthonged o-u vowel, and the vowel quality and length of "or" is affected by the liquid/approximate letter "r", but to my ears these are allophonemically similar enough to be considered the same vowel. (There's some fun phonological jargon for you!) In other regions in the US that didn't undergo the caught-cot merger, particularly the South and East/Northeast regions, orange to my ears sounds closer to ah-range. Of course there are so many varieties and accents of English around the world and even within English-speaking countries that there's no definitive correct pronunciation.
1120
I wonder what the origin of this is. In English, "knock knock" is an onomatopoeia, a word that sounds like what it means. Other examples of onomatopoeias include "bang", "pop", "meow", "crash". This is clearly not an onomatopoeia, does it have a literal meaning?